Captain Vasco Maldonado Sunday meets the opponent of his start as a coach | Basque

With the suspension of Mauricio Barbieri, who was sent off in the opening game of the Brasileirao Basque It will be directed by technical assistant Claudio Maldonado against Palmeiras, on Sunday, at 4 pm, in the Maracanã. The Chilean returns to the field where he has played many times as a player, but this time with the task of leading the Rio de Janeiro team in search of a second victory in the national championship.

Palmeiras and Maracana, however, are nothing new for Maldonado. The assistant appeared as a coach precisely in a match against Alviverde, in 2020, when Barbieri passed Bragantino. The following year, he was also the coach of Massa Prota in Maraca, in a match against Flamengo.

As a player, the former defensive midfielder revealed by Colo-Colo played for Sao Paulo, Cruzeiro, Santos, Fenerbahçe (Turkey) and Corinthians. He also defended Vasco’s main rival, Flamengo, between 2009 and 2012 – during this period, before the Maracana closed for the World Cup in Brazil, the Chilean established a closer relationship with the stadium.

With a less expansive profile in Vasco’s day-to-day life, Maldonado is not shy about revising when asked and gets along well with all of the club’s pros. He has a particularly close relationship with the players, whom he likes to talk to and advise during activities.

This Sunday, he will have an experienced assistant at his side. Vasco’s permanent assistant and interim coach for two spells last year, Emilio Faro, will lead the team alongside Claudio Maldonado on the edge of the pitch at the Maracanã.

After hanging up his boots in 2015, Maldonado prepared to continue his football career. Three years later, he started his journey as a technical assistant at the same place where he first touched the ball as a professional player, Colo-Colo, after a training period with Fábio Carille, at Corinthians. In 2019, he spent a few days in Palmeiras and others in Santos to learn from Filipao and Jorge Sampaoli respectively. He has Conmebol A, B and PRO licenses to be a coach.

With a life dedicated to Brazilian football, the former midfielder has already returned to the country in 2020 to help Mauricio Barbieri at CSA. The beginning of the three-year partnership was completed last January. Vasco is the third club in the duo, who has previously done very consistent work at Red Bull Bragantino. At the Sao Paulo club, Maldonaldo had already replaced Barbieri against Palmeiras.

The match valid for Brazil 2020 marked the assistant’s debut as a coach. With Barbieri suspended for his third yellow card, Maldonado was on the edge of the field in the 1-0 defeat against Palmeiras, at Allianz Park, on 27 December of that year. At the time, the Chilean saw the episode as a good opportunity to gain experience. Then he got other chances.

The coaching staff has a good relationship with the players. This is what Claudio Maldonado believes. Therefore, the Chilean immediately tried to establish close contact with Vasco’s squad. An athlete’s definition of a professional is “a very calm guy.”

Experience as a player is Maldonado’s trump card in connection with the Vasco team. The work Pec cited is a common occurrence in everyday life, and the assistant has a habit of giving rehearsals with some of the athletes after training under Barbieri’s guidance.

Maldonado usually has more discreet moments with athletes in training, when, for example, Barbieri splits up the set and leaves the assistant with the task of commanding a particular job. A few days ago, in a training open to the press, the former midfielder was responsible for working with the defenders while the coach led the activity with the players up front.

Therefore, the assistant is also interested in talking to the newcomers. And they were plenty at Vasco, which signed 16 reinforcements for the 2023 season, the latest of which arrived Thursday. In the first training session with the team, Carabajal had a short conversation with Maldonado on the pitch.

Neither Chilean nor Brazilian. Claudio Maldonado can be seen as a combination of the two. Vasco’s assistant has already completed two decades of living in Brazil, with two-thirds of his career being devoted to Brazilian football.

Having arrived in São Paulo by chance, due to Colo-Colo debts with the Brazilian club of Sierra (a former Chilean midfielder, he was at Morumbi in 1995), Maldonado adapted well to his country’s national team. Today, language is no longer a problem – and this helps a lot in the relationship with the players.

Maldonado made Brazil his home. He is married to a Brazilian woman (Renata), and their daughter, Victoria, was born and raised here. Good performances on the field, with Cruzeiro and Flamengo winning national titles, made him known, and made him accepted by the Brazilian people as much as his country.

The “Brazilino” even returned to Chile, where he finished his career as a player and began his career as an assistant, but he could not live far from Brazil. This Sunday, he will once again experience the heat of the crowds in the crowded Maracanã, full of good expectations.

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